EUGENE, Ore. — Over the space of three bizarre days beginning on an April night in Springfield almost four years ago, Nicholas James Corleto went from being a young man with a good job and better prospects to an armed criminal wanted in two states and facing more than a decade behind bars.

On Wednesday, Corleto was not far from where his sudden and almost inexplicable crime spree began. In a Eugene courtroom he pleaded guilty to two counts each of armed robbery, theft and car theft in connection with the holdup of an adult video store and a carjacking on April 11, 2009.

Corleto, 26, was sentenced to 114 months — almost 10 years — in prison. But first he will be returned to California to serve the remainder of a 12-year sentence he received for a series of armed robberies he committed in that state after he fled Oregon.

Four years of Corleto's Lane County sentence will run concurrently with the California sentence. That means when he is released in California, which could happen in 2019 with time off for good behavior, he then will be returned to Oregon and sent to a state prison to serve the remaining 5½ years of his Lane County sentence.

All told, Corleto will spend about 15 years in prison to atone for the three-day crime spree that ended April 13, 2009, when officers from Indio, Calif., at a nearby casino spotted a Jeep Wrangler he had stolen at gunpoint in Cheshire, northwest of Eugene.

In between those two events, Corleto is believed to have committed an armed robbery and purse-snatching in Redlands, Calif., an attempted bank robbery in Sacramento, the armed robbery of a motel clerk in Palm Desert and then the armed robbery of another motel clerk in Indio.

In the December following his arrest, Corleto reportedly tried to escape from the Indio jail with another man, who was awaiting trial on a murder charge. After breaking through the security screen covering a recreation yard, Corleto jumped 30 feet to the ground, seriously injuring his leg. The other man was shot by guards but survived, according to newspaper reports.

Exactly what drove Corleto to such violent crimes remains something of a mystery. Deputy Lane County District Attorney Erik Hasselman said Wednesday the crimes seemed to have no apparent purpose, and Corleto has not offered an explanation for suddenly turning his back on what had been a promising, law-abiding life.

Rebecca Davis, Corleto's court-appointed attorney, said that just before starting his crime spree Corleto had lost his job at a local branch of Wells Fargo Bank. That seemed to hit hard, she said.

She said it's also possible Corleto took drugs at a party he attended just before committing the first robbery, but she acknowledged that doesn't fully explain what happened.

"What he did does not make sense any way you look at it," Davis said.

On the evening of April 10, 2009, Corleto went with a friend to a party, Hasselman said.

About 1 a.m. he asked to borrow the friend's pickup to run a short errand, but instead went to the Exclusively Adult store in Springfield with a pistol-grip shotgun and robbed the clerk, getting about $70.

He then began following another car, apparently at random, from Randy Papé Beltline all the way to Cheshire northwest of Eugene, where the driver stopped in the driveway of his home.

Corleto stopped the friend's pickup he had stolen, pointed the shotgun at the other driver and forced him to lie on the ground before stealing his wallet with about $50, his cellphone and car keys.

He took the man's Jeep. Not long after, Eugene police spotted the stolen car and tried to stop it, but Corleto sped through a parking lot and strips of landscaping to elude them, made it to Interstate 5 and headed for California.

It was pretty clear Corleto was an amateur criminal. In the pickup he had taken from his friend, Corleto left behind a duffel bag with his name and address printed on a luggage tag.

Since being sentenced in California, Corleto has turned his life back around, Davis said. He has attended college classes and hopes to get a degree, has taken responsibility for his crimes and is trying to better himself, she said.

"What I can tell you is the man you see today is not the same man" as the one who went on that robbery spree in 2009, she said.

Corleto did not elaborate on the reason for his crimes when given the chance to address the judge. He said he is trying to move forward, "so I can have a bright opportunity in the future."

But Lane County Circuit Judge Lauren Holland reminded him that he can't leave his crimes entirely behind him. The victims of those robberies were deeply traumatized, she said, and shouldn't have had to suffer that to show Corleto the error of his ways.

"It's unfortunate that your fall ended up causing such destruction and damage to other people," she said. "Your actions wreaked havoc with other members of this community, and it shouldn't take that."

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

azcentral.com has switched to the Facebook comment system on its blogs. Existing blog comments will display, but new comments will only be accepted via the Facebook comment system. To begin commenting, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. While we welcome you to join conversations, readers are responsible for their comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.